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The Glass Buddha Project: Technology + Mindfulness = Awesome

I’m fascinated by technology and committed to exploring ways to teach meditation more effectively. I want to use technology to reach as many people as possible in our global village, so that we can spread the benefits of mindfulness and compassion.

An amazing opportunity has come up. I won a competition and was selected by Google to explore the potential of Google Glass, the new wearable computing gizmo with a head-mounted display, voice recognition, and audio and visual recording capabilities.

This could be an amazing tool for teaching.

I’d be able to record audio and video of my classes more easily.

I’d be able to open up retreats I lead so that people not on the retreat could participate live in events.

I’d be able to lead guided meditations from anywhere.

I’d be able to record notes for blog posts when ideas pop into my head at odd times.

I could conduct interviews.

I also intend to explore the potential for developing an app that would help people to set spiritual goals for themselves (like being kinder to others), and then deliver short messages during the day to remind them of those goals (“Remember to stay in touch with your heart”). The amazing thing about Glass is that you don’t need to reach into your pocket, unlock your phone, and then stare at a screen when a message like that comes in. The message is just there, hovering in space at the edge of your vision. You don’t need to disconnect from the world to see it. I don’t want to get ahead of myself, though. Developing such an app is whole project in itself. For now I need to experiment with the technology so that I can understand its strengths and limitations.

Winning the competition was great. I’m one of just a couple of thousand people worldwide who will be able to explore Glass. But Google still wants me to pay $1500 (plus tax, which makes it $1633). And I simply don’t have that amount of money.

So I’m crowdfunding! I need to raise $1633, and so I’ve created a fundraising project on Indiegogo, called The Glass Buddha Project.